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| What is Crisis Management? | |
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| Topic Started: Mar 9 2009, 05:01 PM (4,083 Views) | |
| Alton Lagan | Mar 9 2009, 05:01 PM Post #1 |
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It may sound like a stupid question, but 'crisis management' seems to be a term that has gotten many meanings in recent years. For a school counselor 'crisis management' can mean school violence prevention or helping students through emotional trauma. For a psychologist 'crisis management' is understand human behavior and decision making in critical situations and helping people manage their way safely though adversity. For an emergency responder it can be planing for and putting out fires. For someone in public relations, it is largely talking to the news media after something bad has happened. And it has many other meanings. Crisis Management is defined in great detail places like Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crisis_management and else where online. Most seem to focus on the communications or emergency response side of it, but none seem to provide a comprehensive definition. Myself, I have always assumed that crisis management was the art of managing crises, as oppose to it cousin disaster recovery, which deals with unmanageable crises. Ideally crisis management involves the steps anticipating potential crises, reviewing potential crises to determine if any can be eliminated or minimized, planing, training, and finally reacting to the crises. Often there is not time for all of these steps. I would be interested to hear how others would define crisis management, and if there is a single, comprehensive definition for it. |
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| CrisisMan | Mar 9 2009, 06:01 PM Post #2 |
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I'm not sure there is a clear definition for crisis management since it means one thing to people in public relations and another to the folks at General Motors trying to keep their company afloat. Crisis Management Communications, the art of trying to control the public message in a crisis, often goes beyond just controlling the message. Crisis Management in the corporate board room often includes controlling the message. Therefore, the definition is a little like jello. It's hard to get a solid handle on it. Right now, the word seems to be most often used by, and about, the folks in The Obama Administration who are trying to get control of the biggest crisis in a lifetime: the global economic crisis. In their case, it involves all aspects of crisis management. |
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| Bart | Mar 10 2009, 01:11 PM Post #3 |
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I think crisis management is just a management strategy. It doesn't matter if you make hot dogs, widgets, or methyl ethyl death, good management skills remain the same. What you are doing might change considerably, but the basic practice of managing people remains constant. So I don't think it maters what part of a crises you are managing, but it is the technique of managing it. |
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| Mike Barnes | Apr 16 2009, 08:46 PM Post #4 |
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Crisis Management is what Domino's Pizza is working on right now. So far, they seem to be doing a good job. Could they do more? What do the experts have to say? |
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| Allison Combs | Apr 21 2009, 03:04 PM Post #5 |
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Not sure I qualify as an "expert," but Domino's seems to be doing well. I think they had the best response they could, considering the situation they were in. It'll probably be a few months to determine if the YouTube incident had any lasting impact. |
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| Steve Wilson | May 8 2009, 11:12 AM Post #6 |
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I believe one aspect of crisis management is detecting the potential of a crisis and taking preemptive action to see that the crisis never happens. Barring prevention of the crisis, at least you'll have a plan to deal with it should it take place. This type of crisis management may involve a bit of reputation management, employee relations, community relations and opening lines of communications with those that potentially could be involved in the issue. It may also involve strategic business decisions such as changing, moving or eliminating certain types of operations. This is more than crisis management, it is just good business. A key part of crisis management is identifying "potential" crises and then having a plan to deal with them. |
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| marksmithh | Jun 4 2009, 07:05 AM Post #7 |
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Well, Crisis management can be termed as a management strategy. You can adapt this quality by reading Management Articles online and applying it in practical life |
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| Steve Wilson | Apr 9 2010, 03:52 PM Post #8 |
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Crisis Management is something I'm sure Tiger Woods and the folks at Toyota probably wish they were better at. They both got off to a slow start in trying to control two, very different types of crises. |
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| John Stufflebeem | Apr 27 2010, 12:15 PM Post #9 |
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Crisis Management does mean many things to many people and quite a lot of it, and them, are all different. From my experience and in a practical way, 'crisis' infers time-critical vice deliberate or planned and 'management' infers taking control to get things done. These certainly apply to pre-planned or preemptive planning but also in reaction as it seems most in business do not prepare for crises, or least not well enough. Most plans are rudimentary at best and cannot cover every potential crisis in ones sphere but do provide good templates from which to start and deviate from. The reality is most managers deal with crises as they come and those most successful at it have some common traits, e.g. experience, strategic vision, resilience and tranquility. |
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10:12 PM Feb 4